Coronavirus impact: Indian women's hockey coach Marijne puts off plans to visit family

The Indian women's hockey team chief coach Sjoerd Marijne was forced to put off his plans to visit his home country, The Netherlands due to the travel restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marijne was supposed to travel to The Netherlands on Friday night for a week during a brief break of the national camp of the women's hockey team but the 45-year-old Dutchman had to cancel his plans because of the coronavirus outbreak. The campers are scheduled to assemble for the camp again at the SAI, South Centre in Bengaluru on March 22.

Marijne puts off plans to visit family

"I was supposed to visit my family in The Netherlands during this break but I had to put of my plans because of the coronavirus outbreak. I don't want to risk myself and my family during this troubled times," Marijne told PTI from Bengaluru.

Marijne had earlier tweeted about his travel plans, saying he was forced to cancel his family visit because of the risk associated right now. "Had to turn around on my way to the airport to go to my family. The risk is too great that I can't return to India. Hard times for everyone and for me now that I Can't see my family and I don't know when this is going to happen," he tweeted. The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on sporting activities across the world, not just India. 

The three-match ODI series between India and South Africa was postponed while the lucrative Indian Premier League was deferred till April 15 because of the growing cases in the country. The IPL was scheduled to begin on March 29. While the first ODI between and South Africa was washed out on Thursday in Dharamsala because of rain, the remaining two matches in Lucknow and Kolkata were on Friday called off owing to the COVID-19 threat after the visiting players "expressed unwillingness" to continue in view of the rising positive cases in the host country.

India has so far recorded more than 80 positive cases with the global infected count standing at over 1,30,000. The death toll because of the virus has gone beyond 5,000 internationally.

Image credits: AP